It appears that many designers are embracing bleach this coming season.  From the elitist corners of couture to the wider ranges of mass market, styles are purposefully paler, if not washed out, this spring. Paring pastel tie dye with white denim, Members Only has tapped eighties color palettes to create abstract graffiti slacks.  Moving in a more feminine direction, Erdem’s Lucina Tailored Dress is a modern remake of traditional French toile fabric.  Balmain, a rising favorite among fashion circles, merges these two concepts to create a hybrid of luxury denim.

When discussing how faded motifs are woven throughout our everyday lives, it’s interesting to note the natural wear and tear that occurs in metropolitan environments.  Be it an old wall in Paris, a faded stop sign in Ohio or the remnants of a house in Melbourne, all of these “eye sores” contain beautiful details that progressive observers tap for inspiration.  Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal boldly predicts that we’ll be seeing rougher streets as city budgets dwindle in her article entitled, Goodbye Bland Affluence.  So we ask, are designers subconsciously glamorizing the decline of urban city living?